Fan Wang Team Identifies Brain Area That May Control Pain 'Off' Switch

A Duke University research team led by DIBS Faculty Network Member Fan Wang, PhD, Neurobiology, has found a small area of the brain in mice that can profoundly control the animals’ sense of pain. Somewhat unexpectedly, this brain center turns pain off, not on. It’s also located in an area where few people would have thought to look for an anti-pain center, the amygdala, which is often considered the home of negative emotions and responses, like the fight or flight response and general anxiety. Click HERE [EDIT: Link now directs to a Duke Today article] to read more of the story by Duke Research Director Karl Leif Bates.